Tack making machine



July 28, 1936. B. P. COOPER ET AL TACK MAKING MACHINE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Sept. 25, 1935 y 1936. B. P. COOPER ET AL 2,048,839

TACK MAKING MACHINE Fi led Sept. 25, 1935 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented July 28, 1936 TACK MAKING V MACHINE Basil Pomeroy Cooper and James Norman Henshaw, Leicester, England, assignors to United Shoe Machinery Corporation, Paterson, N. 3., a corporation of New Jersey Application September 25, 1935, Serial No. 42,149 In Great Britain October 3, 1934 8 Claims. (01. 10-174) This invention is concerned with improvements turning over, is effected by an eccentric linked to in or relating to driving mechanisms and is illusthe member which carries the nozzle, and trated as embodied in a machine for making tacks mounted on the shaft driven by the elliptical or nails from flat strips of metal, the illustrated gears. machine being of the type shown in United States It is well known that elliptical gearing, par- Letters Patent No. 1,396,19l,granted November 8, ticularly elliptical miter gearing is highly ex- 1921, on the application of George Goddu. pensive to manufacture, having to be made Machines of this kindwhich are in general use largely by hand Work. at the present time usually comprise a strip guid- Various of the several objects of the present ining 'nozzle or barrel through which a. strip of vention are to provide an improved mechanism 1 metal, of a width slightly longer than the length for rotating and lifting the blank-strip which will of the fastenings to be made from it, to allow for impart, between successive operations of the dies,

forming the heads of the fastenings, is fed by partial rotations in the same direction and also suitable means toward dies which shear from an lift the strip-guiding nozzle of such a machine,

end of the strip projecting beyond the nozzle or which mechanism shall be simple, cheap, compact 1 barrel a tapered or wedge-shaped blank for a and durable and will act to cause the partial' tack, a heading die being caused, after the rotations of the nozzle to take place at relatively severance of the blank, to strike against the wider high speed so as to reduce the time necessary for end of the blank to spread it into a head. In the inversion of the strip and will yet reduce the order that the shearing dies may sever tapered rotary movements of the strip substantially to 20 blanks from the strip, the nozzle or barrel in such zero at the desired times to enable the blank machines has a slight angular relation to a line severing operations to be carried out with ease drawn perpendicularly to the shearing edges of and efficiency. the dies so that these dies sever an end portion In accordance with a principal feature of the from the strip along a line which makes a slight invention this is accomplished by providing, in a 25 angle to a line extending across the strip pertack making machine a novel organization compendicularly to the length thereof, and, in order prising cutting dies, a driving shaft in a normally to invert or reverse the strip so that like sucfixed position and a laterally movable as well as cessive blanks may be cut from the strip with rotatable driven shaft, and gearing located betheir pointed ends extending in the same directween them arranged to transform uniform rota- 30 tion, such machines are provided with means for tion of the driving shaft into a non-uniform rotaturning the barrel or nozzle together with the tion and a lateral translatory movement of the strip therein through 180 about its axis between driven shaft. In the preferred embodiment of successive blank severing operations.v Also, since the invention illustrated herein, each of said the strip rests flat on the upper surface of the shafts has an ordinary circular pinion mounted 35 lower shearing die at the instant the shearing cut thereon, and at least one of said pinions is ecis made, it is advisable, in turning over the nozzle centrically mounted on its shaft. This eccentric and its contained blank-strip, to lift it sufiiciently mounting effects not only the variable angular to permit the lower corner of the turning strip velocity desired in the driven shaft, but also to clear the upper surface of the lower die. It is eifects the desired translatory movement, dis- 40 also necessary that, during the shearing operacussed above,as will be fully explained below. tion, the strip lie substantially motionless upon In the particular illustrative embodiment of the upper surface of the lower die. the invention hereinafter described the driven In the machine of the patent referred to, these shaft imparts the desired partial rotations to the requirements are met by a drive mechanism comnozzle by means of a chain and sprocket wheels 45 prising two elliptical miter gears which rotate the and a sliding suport for this shaft is coupled by nozzle, always in the same direction, by steps of a link to a support for the nozzle, the shaft and 180, the elliptical gears being so arranged as to its support being arrangedto be lifted to lift the produce minimum angular velocity when the nozzle by the operation of means which rotates blank-strip is resting on the upper surface of the the shaft, in such manner that lifting of the 50 lower die, and maximum angular velocity when nozzle and a half rotation thereof at an increasthe plane of the blank-strip is perpendicular to ing speed to lift and invert the strip occur simulthe upper surface of the lower die, at the point taneously in the first half cycle and a descent of where the strip is turned over half way. The the nozzle to lay the strip flat on the stationary raising of the nozzle and strip, to permit this or lower die and a rapid decrease in the speed of 55 the rotary movement of the nozzle also occur simultaneously in the second half cycle. For rotating and lifting the said shaft in the manner above indicated the driven shaft carries a circular pinion which is offset from the axis of the shaft and meshes with a second circular driving pinion which is offset to a larger degree from the axis of a second and parallel driving shaft carrying it, the driving shaft rotating uniformly and continuously in one direction and being positioned at a lower level than the driven shaft. The eccentric relations of the two pinions relatively to their shafts and the bodily rotary movement imparted to the driven pinion by the driving pinion are such that when the nozzle is in its lowest position with the strip positioned flat on the stationary die the rotary movement of the nozzle will have been reduced to a negligible amount although the driving shaft rotates con tinuously at a constant speed, and when the nozzle commences to lift, owing to bodily lifting of the driven pinion by the driving pinion, it also commences to rotate at an increasing speed and its angular velocity increases until the nozzle has reached its highest position after which time the angular rotation of the nozzle decreases progressively as the nozzle is allowed to descend by the descent of the driven pinion.

These and other features of the invention comprising certain combinations and arrangements of parts will be apparent from the following description of a prefered embodiment of the invention shown in the drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a side elevation showing sufiicient of a machine embodying the illustrative embodiment to enable the construction and operation of the latter to be understood; and

Figs. 2 to 6 illustrate a series of positions of the pinions characteristic of the present invention, Fig. 2 illustrating the lowest position and slowest speed of the driven shaft, and Fig. 6 the highest position and the fastest speed.

ing blanks from the end 'of a strip, and a header for forming the heads on the said blanks arranged as in the machine disclosed inthe patent referred to. The illustrative machine has a nozzle Ill arranged and supported similarly to the nozzle I28 described in the said patent dies.

For imparting to the nozzle rotations of 180 1n the same direction between successive shearing operations of the dies and for lifting the nozzlersufficiently during such rotations toennozzle nearer the dies to clear the stationary die, the illustrative machine is providedwith a secondary shaft l6 extending forwardly and rearwardly as seen in Fig. 1 similar to the shaft referred to-as 86 in the patent referred to, which secondary shaft is driven by a chain ill from the main shaft 20 of themachin'e (which latter operates the movable dies through cams on it, for example, as in the. wellknown Perkins tack machine) at the as the shaft 20. The shaft ordinary bevel gears 22 and 24 a third shaft same speed I 6 drives through of equal diameter,

mounted concentrically with the pinion 40 just in front of the latter engages constantly with the lifting axes of the pinions 34 and 40.

The shaft 42 which carries the pinion 40 is mounted in a bearing in a slide ranged in a slideway 56 provided frame at right angles to the nozzle and to the shaft 42 and the slide is coupled to the rotating head 50 which supports the nozzle ID by a justable link58 having pivotal connections at its opposite ends with the slide and with the rotating head 50' so that a rising movement of the slide causes the nozzle l0 to rise a similar extent, the nozzle and the rotating port-ed for such rising movement in a pivotally 55 which is an: in the machine head being sup supported yoke 60 similar to that referred 'to' as 68 in the patent referred to. r

The two pinions 34 and 40 are so timed that when a strip passing through the nozzle is lying fiat upon the lower stationary die and the blank severing operation is taking place they are each at their lowest positions about'their shafts, as indicated in Fig. l, i. e., at that time a line passing vertically through the axes of the shafts 30 and 42 will also pass through the axes of the two pinions, the axis of the driving pinion 34. lying directly below the axis of the shaft 30 and the axis of the driven pinion40 lying directly below the axis of the shaft 42 and over the axis of the shaft 30. As before stated the pitch diameters of the two pinions are each one inch and the driving pinion 34 is offset some 7 16 inch (1. e., a distance. nearly equal to the radius of its pitch circle) from the axis of its supporting shaft 3%. Owing to this fact the pitch circle of this pinion will at its uppermost portion lie nearly on the axis of its carrying shaft 30 at this time. Since the driving thrust of the pinion 34 to the pinion 43 takes place along their pitch circles and since also at this time the teeth of the pinion 40 mesh with the teeth of the pinion 34 on the uppermost side of the latter and as, moreover, the. rotation of the pinion 34 takes place about the axis of the shaft 30, any rotary movement imparted to the pinion 40 and therefore to the nozzle by the uppermost teeth of the pinion 34 at the instant at which the strip lies fiat on the stationary die will be so small as to be negligible and the shearing action of the dies will not therefore be impeded by any appreciable movement of the strip. The more nearly the eccentricity of the pinion 34 approximates to the pitch radius of the pinion, the more nearly a perfect stop at the time of shear is approximated.

It will be appreciated, however, that the time during which the nozzle remains in its lowest position for the shearing operation of the dies need only be extremely short since the shearing operation of the dies takes place almost instantaneously and immediately the pinion 34 has passed through its lowest position it commences to rise in a circular path, as shown in Figs. 2 to 6, this path having a radius equal to the distance the axis of the pinion is offset from the axis of its shaft so, and as it does so the lifting member 38 which is concentric with it lifts the roll 52 carried by the pinion 40 and thereby lifts the nozzle through the slide 54 and link 58, the combined rising and rotating movement of the driving pinion 34 causing portions of the periphery of this pinion which occupy positions progressively spaced further from the axis of rotation of its carrying shaft 30, and therefore having linear speeds of progressively increasing amounts, to engage progressively with the teeth on the driven pinion 40 so that the speed at which the latter and therefore the nozzle is rotated increases as the pinion 40 rises, and reaches its maximum when the pinion reaches the top of its lifting movement, indicated in Fig. 2. The speed of rotation of the nozzle and of its lifting therefore increase simultaneously up to its highest position and decrease simultaneously thereafter until the nozzle becomes sufficiently stationary when the inverted strip is once more laid on the stationary die. The driven pinion 40 will be rotated once, at a continually varying speed, about the axis of its carrying shaft 42 during each complete rotation of the driving pinion 34 and the extent of simple, cheap,

the lift imparted to the nozzle by the rising of the driving pinion 34 is indicated by a comparison of Figs. 2 and 6. It will be equal to twice the difference in the eccentricities of the pinions 34 and 40, i. e'., the lift in the illustrated machine will be some inch, which distance is sufficiently great to allow any nozzle which is likely to be used in a machine making small tacks to clear the stationary die'as the nozzle is rotated in the manner above described.

An indication of the efficiency of the eccentric pinion arrangement in rotating the nozzle at a high speed at certain times and in reducing this rotation to a minimum at other times is shown by the fact that, with pinions of the size and arranged as indicated, the angular velocity of the nozzle when it is at its highest position in inverting the strip will be more than fifteen times as great'as at its lowest position.

From what has been said it will be appreciated that the illustrative embodiment provides a very and compact mechanism, which, if desired, can be enclosed in a simple casing, and which serves both to impart the desired vertical movements and partial rotations to the nozzle at a relatively high speed and yet causes the angu lar velocity of the strip to be reduced to a neg-. ligible amount, when the strip lies on the stationary die, for a sufficient period to allow the moving dies to shear a blank therefrom. This mechanism is light in weight, takes but little power to drive and has been found to stand up well during long periods of use.

The roller 52 and lifting member 38 above referred to; as will be understood, relieve the pinions themselves from the strain of lifting the nozzle but, if desired, the roller and the lifting member and the disk 36 may be dispensed with and replaced by other constructions which will hold the pinions 34 and 40 at a fixed distance from each other. Such a construction, for example, could be a link, as already suggested.

Having described our invention, what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. Ina tack making machine, a pair of shearingdies, a blank-strip carrying member arranged to laythe end of a blank-strip carried by it on the lower, die toifacilitate the shearing of a tack blank from the strip, and to raise and to turn over and lower the blank-strip in preparation for the shearing of a second tack blank, a vertically and rotatably movable shaft located below the carrying member and having a connection of fixed length and a driving connection therewith, whereby the rotation of the shaft will rotate the carrying member and the raising and lowering of the shaft will raise and lower, respectively, the carrying member, a drive shaft having its axis in a normally fixed position substantially parallel to that of the first said shaft, and gearing located between the two said shafts constructed and arranged to transform uniform rotation of the drive shaft into non-uniform rotation and translation in a direction transverse to its axis, of the first said shaft.

2. In a tack making machine, a pair of shearing dies, a blank-strip carrying member arranged to lay the end of a blank-strip carried by it on the lower die to facilitate the shearing of a tack blank from the strip, and to raise and to turn over and lower the blank-strip in preparation for the shearing of a second tack blank, a vertically and .rotatably movable shaft located below the carrying member and having a connection ,of

fixed length and a driving connection therewith, whereby the rotation of the shaft will rotate the carrying member and the raising and lowering of the shaft will raise and lower, respectively, the carrying member, a drive shaft having its axis in a normally fixed position substantially parallel to that of the first said shaft, and gearing located between the two said shafts constructed and arranged to transform uniform rotation of the drive shaft into non-uniform rotation and translation in a direction transverse to its axis, of the first said shaft, said gearing comprising an ordinary pinion eccentrically mounted on one of said shafts.

3. In a tack making machine, a pair of shearing dies, a blank-strip carrying member arranged to lay the end of a blank-strip on the lower die to facilitate the shearing of a tack blank from the strip and to raise and to turn over and lower the blank-strip carried by it in preparation for the shearing of a second tack blank, and means for raising and turning over the carrying member comprising a drive shaft and a driven shaft located below the carrying member, a connection of fixed length between the driven shaft and the carrying member and two meshing-pinions mounted on the shafts, respectively, one of said pinions being eccentrically mounted on its shaft.

4. In a tack making machine, a blank-strip carrier and mechanism for lifting, turning over and dropping the carrier comprising a drive shaft, and a driven shaft parallel thereto located beneath the carrier, a lifting and rotary drive connection of normally fixed length between the driven shaft and the carrier, and a driving connection between the shafts comprising a pair of pinions mounted eccentrically on the shafts, respectively.

5. In a tack making machine, a blank-strip carrier and mechanism for lifting, turning over and dropping the carrier comprising a drive shaft, and a driven shaft parallel theretolocated beneath the carrier, a lifting and rotary drive connection of normally fixed length between the driven shaft and the carrier, and a driving connection between the shafts comprising a pair of pinions mounted eccentrically on the shafts, respectively, the pinions beingsotimedthat they simultaneously reach extreme positions',relati-vely to the carrier.

:6 In pa 5tackmaking machine, a blank-strip carrier and-mechanism for lifting, turning over and dropping thecarriercomprising a drive shaft, and .:a driven shaft parallel thereto located beneathjth'e carrier, a lifting and rotary drive connection ,of normally fixed length between the driven shaft :and the carrier, and a driving connection between the shafts comprising a pair of pinions mounted Leccentrically on the shafts, respectively, the pinions being so timed that they simultaneously reach their maximum and minimum :distances from the carrier.

7. In-a tack making machine, a blank-strip carrier and mechanism for lifting, turning over and dropping-the :carrier'comprising a drive shaft, and a driven shaft parallel thereto located beneath the carrier, :a lifting and rotary drive connection ;of normally fixed length between the driven shaft and the carrier, and a driving connection between the shafts comprising a pair of pinions mounted eccentrically on the shafts, respectively, :the-eccentricity of the pinion on the driving shaft being :greater than that of the pinion the driven shaft, and the mechanism being-so timed that the centers of the pinions come simultaneouslyinto the plane of the shafts.

8; Ina tack making machine, a blank-strip carrier which is both rotatable and translatable in a direction transverse to its length, and mechanism for rotating and translating the carrier comprising a'driven' shaft geared to the carrier, said'driven :shaft being slidable in the direction in which the translation of the carrier is to take place, a connection of fixed effective length between the driven shaft and the carrier arranged to permit rotation of the carrier by the driven shaft through the gear drive, a driving shaft offset from the driven shaft in the said direction of translation, each of said shafts having a gear wheeliecc'ent'rically mounted on it and said gear wheels being in mesh, the timing being such that the centers of the gear wheels simultaneously reach extreme positions as the driving shaft is rotated.

JAMES NORMAN HENSI-IAW. BASIL POMEROY COOPER.

relatively to the carrier 45 

